National Bike Summit

A Conversation With Greg Ballard

The mayor of Indianapolis may be one of the unlikeliest bike proponents ever—which is why he’s so important

david howard

(Photo by Since 2007, Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard has increased the number of miles of bike lanes in his city from 1 to 75. (Chris DiStefano))

If you didn’t know better, you might have glanced at the lineup for this week’s National Bike Summit, spotted Greg Ballard’s name, and asked yourself: What is that guy doing here? He served for 23 years as a Marine before entering politics as a Republican candidate for mayor of Indianapolis in 2007. It doesn’t exactly put him on a parallel career track with, say, Gary Fisher. But after pulling off an upset win, he sold Indianapolis’s water and wastewater utilities to a nonprofit trust; the move eliminated the city’s debt and created more than $400 million for projects—including a massive bicycle-enhancement program that will ultimately create 200 miles of trails and bike lanes. Bicycling sat down with him at the summit, which was hosted by the League of American Bicyclists, in Washington, DC, this week.

Bicycling: I don’t think I’m alone in saying I find it fascinating that someone like you, a conservative, military type, is here among this crowd.
Greg Ballard: I hope I’m not too much of an anomaly. [Laughs]

When did the idea to create bike lanes crystallize for you?
As the mayor of a big city, it’s about talent attraction and business attraction, and you need to know the trends that are coming forward now. So when you look at what young people are looking for, when you look at businesses who want to hire those people, you have to create that kind of city, and that’s really what we’re trying to do. I like to ride bikes—it’s not a secret in the city—but I didn’t do this because [of that]. It was really about creating the culture within the city.

Did you ride much before you became mayor?
In the Marines you don’t ride too much. I had a bike and I rode a little bit, but not a lot. Even when I became mayor, it wasn’t until the middle of the second year that it really started to take off. In the summer I ride quite a bit now.

What do you ride?
I have two Cannondales. I got a hybrid and last year I bought a carbon Synapse. Like Ricky Bobby, I want to go fast. [Laughs]

How soon after you took office did the bike program start to gel?
Probably within the first year. I was able to move very fast in this direction. Being at this conference, it’s clear to me we moved very far very fast compared to what most cities are able to do—to go from a mile of bike lanes in 2007 to a projected 200 miles of trails and bike lanes eight years later. Right away we were moving forward on this wastewater transfer, which was really not executed until 3½ years later. However, we did buy against it to get ahead of the game so we could get started with some infrastructure projects, which included trails and bike lanes. We knew there were certain elements we had to have that would create the kind of city young people would want to move to—and, frankly, the older generation too. They like the bike lanes. The Monon Trail—on weekday mornings, it’s packed.

What advice do you have for people who run other cities?
Realize it’s going to take some cash to do it. But there are expenses and then there are investments—I think every mayor should know the difference. I’m suggesting to people that ultimately there’s going to be return on this by the talent that you bring into the city.

Has there been any blowback?
There are people who say, “Why are you doing this?” There was a lady who came up to me and said, “When I drive my car, I have to slow down.” I said, “Exactly. Now you’re getting it.” I think they’re accepting it now. It probably does help that I was a Marine for 23 years—people think I have a sense of service as opposed to being a political mayor. Anybody who’s hiring the younger generation—a lot of the IT companies—it’s kind of like, “You should’ve done this a while back.” That’s how they feel about it. So there really hasn’t been much pushback.

Were there other cities you looked at as models?
Actually, we had the plan already—it was probably somewhere between 12 and 15 years old, but nobody ever executed it. It just sat there. I became the mayor and when all these ideas started gelling I said, “This is something we need to do.” It’s almost comical when you think about it. We got the infrastructure out there pretty quickly but it took about two years before it really started to connect up, and people started to see you could get from Point A to Point B.

How are you showing this stuff off?
I’ve got four bike rides with the mayor [during different times of year]. This year—not sure this is a good idea [laughs]—but they’re going to have the Race with the Mayor. I’m going to be racing against some local media types and business CEOs and celebrity types. And we have three crits now. Certainly spring through summer, bicycling is pretty prevalent in the city now. There’s a lot of interest in it. The Little Five [local vernacular for the Little 500, a venerable race held at Indiana University] down in Bloomington helps out—a lot of those riders ride in the area. I rode in the Little Five for a couple years. I was very mediocre.

A lot of us are.
[laughs] It was kind of funny because last year I was the grand marshal, and my fraternity won for the first time ever. They have some serious people, and they were motivated that day.

Indiana and cycling have a strong historical link.
It’s really the Hilly Hundred, too. But it’s moved into the city really nicely. There’s a lot of interest in the crits. The infrastructure we put in, such as the [Indy Bike Hub] we put in with the lockers. I said, “Go to the Indianapolis Colts locker room, look at those lockers,” so people can get five or six sets of clothing in there. People can ride down there, take a shower, go to work, come back, change, and ride home. I joke all the time that I really don’t micromanage that much, but I micromanaged those lockers. So now people can take their clothes down for the week if they want to, so all they have to do is ride their bike back and forth.